'67 Chevelle build- couples therapy
 

I've been working on this '67 Chevelle for a couple months now. My wife wanted a Chevelle and when this one came up for sale on this very forum- we jumped. Inspired in part by Liz Miles, she wanted to dig in and learn as much as she could. Yeah- I'm lucky. Some of our friends don't get it, but it's fantastic therapy for us. I'm learning patience- she is letting her creativity run wild. The car's style is totally dictated by her.

The car was posted up on this forum last year around Christmas and we snagged it from the second owner on New Year's day. It had been sitting in a barn in San Luis Obispo since 1988 and had all of the original documents intact including the protecto plate and service guides. It had a 327/4 speed/12 bolt and didn't run due to a fried Mallory module. I dropped in a replacement, injected oil into the cylinders, changed fluids, and popped it off. Turned out to be a pretty rowdy little 327.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mw9N8dM2Lk

We tore it down,removed the 9 dead mice, and sent it out to get media blasted. The left toe board and package tray were rusted, but the rest turned out to be in excellent shape with only two previous paint jobs. She and I have replaced the rusted areas with new steel. Yesterday we installed a smooth firewall from ABC Chevelle parts (fit perfectly) and am moving on from mock up to panel alignment. We snagged a built 396, a Richmond 5 speed, and a 621 bellhousing for drivetrain. The 12 bolt will get rebuilt, chassis will get the full PT arm/spring/sway bar treatment, Kore 3 C6 Z06 brakes, Vintage air, good stereo, Ferrari red paint, and buckskin leather guts. Hope you all enjoy!

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...elle/chev1.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...le/rearqtr.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/DSC06021.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...velle/int1.jpg

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http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/DSC06563.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/engtrans.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/enginein.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...e/firewall.jpg

DAVE!!!! :D HEY what you doing with my car?:unibrow: For anyone whos reading this thread, I was the previous owner for 1 month shy of 24 years. It was my first car, first hot rod...

Dave and his wife are some of the nicest people I have met. Dave bought it from me and picked it up on 1/1/2011. I actually cried when he left with it (okay Im 42 an Im a baby.. it outlasted my marriage).

Dave, looks great and your wife is doing a great job. She is definately a keeper:thumbsup: I have to update my signature, since now its yours. Thanks so much on the email updates. :hail: Keep in touch...

Blessings,
Alan

great story. 67 is my favorite year for a Chevelle. I had a very similar one, original paint that I sold. Kicked myself for that one, would have been a fantastic project.

Thanks Alan and Jody. The car is moving along well now. I just finished all of the mock up yesterday and am moving it into the bodyshop next week. I'll post up more pics as we get the tin straightened out.

Jody, that car looks identical to hers. I think that interior is called bright blue or something and the exterior Marina Blue. I think that combo was pretty common. The more I work on this car, the more I like it. Full frame cars sure make life easy sometimes.

Looks great Dave!! Nice to have a supporting wife. Looks like we are both fortunate! What a great project for the 2 of you. Look forward to seeing it around once done! :thumbsup:

Cool Chevelle, that is my favorite year. Lucky for the supportive wife and solid project :thumbsup:

they also ride fantastic, lots of fun to drive. You're going to love this project.

Oh man... I love 67 Chevelles.

And now I'm upset that I missed this one, cause it was under my nose!

Sounds dumb to say, but this reminds me of 'the one that got away' when I was a teen. It was a 67, real SS, yellow, with also a 327, 4 spd, and 12bolt rear. The owner told me the 396 was probably obtainable too. I think it had the same bucket seats... ;)

I couldn't gather up the cash to get my hands on it, and I couldn't sell my Camaro fast enough to get it. But one of these days.. I'll have a 67 Chevelle!

Thanks Brent, Ry, Jody etc. for the nice words.

Got the trunk lid fitted last night and getting ready to assemble the front sheetmetal to set some bodylines. I also have to cut the a/c line bulkhead into the new firewall this week. I'll be ordering some metal to metal and filler in a couple days to wrap up the patches and firewall.

FWIW, I did a ton of searching for the Richmond 5 speed install in this particular tunnel with little info found. After a little wrestling, it slid right into place where the M21 once lived. The only two mods required were moving the shifter hole back and inch and dropping the mount on the stock trans crossmember down about 2 inches. Otherwise it fits like it belongs there. No tunnel mods were needed and the bellhousing and linkage have tons of room around them for servicing.

Awesome project! Cant wait to see the end result! :thumbsup:

It is a fine year if I say so myself. I have 2 of them bith verts one done one not. Good luck.

Great project Dave, I've seen your work :D , I know the end result will be awesome. Hey do I need to change my user name to CamaroBill/Nova???

You made a great buy on this one. I bought my project Nova about a month before this came up for sale and gave me buyers remorse. It looks like you are off to a great start. I can't wait to see more pictures.

Been a long time since I updated. We have been working on a bunch of cars and this has taken a back seat for a bit. Finally got it to the point where it's headed to the shop for final body work and paint. Then, we'll split the body and frame and send it out for powder.

The firewall with juist a skim coat left to do and a final block. The rectangle is the reciever for a cold air-cowl induction type deal like the factory offered.
http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...7/IMAG0404.jpg

The engine getting mocked up. It's a mild, roller cammed '67 396, ported 049s, etc. Most everything bought from Lat G members. You can see the Ring Brothers hinges here as well. I'm super impressed by them.

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...7/IMAG0519.jpg

Fenders and doors on for panel alignment and shimming. Went really well due to the solid car to start with.

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...7/IMAG0326.jpg

Here is the intake box in fabrication stage. It was made for me by my friends at Schimms Rod shop. Dude is seriously talented and finished it in 2 days from concept to part in my hands. It'll be powdercoated semi gloss black and will hide the EFI.

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...7/IMAG0246.jpg

Very cool family project. :thumbsup:

That airbox looks fantastic for a 48 hr job. :unibrow:

Car is coming along great. Keep the pics and updates coming.

Very cool project Dave! I have had the same idea for my air intake from when I started to build my Camaro, I love it :thumbsup: What color is going to be?

As a new chevelle owner myself I am loving this build.The air cleaner is awesome.What color are you plannin on.:thumbsup:

I remember that car being for sale. I'm glad it's in good hands. You two are doing a great job. I like that you're using an old school 396. Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Nice
 

Very NICE project.:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Thanks guys! I swear, encouragement from your peers is the best fuel a project can get sometimes.

At this point it's either gonna be Porsche silver (the darker one) with Oxblood red leather, or Honda Red with black leather. We keep going back and forth. Her calipers are powdercoated red and will show a lot through the wheels so that's basically another color aspect I have to plan around. I think either will be a knockout though.

Well look at you a naturally aspirated Big Block. It's nice to see a few NABBs being put in PT cars. I like it even if it is a bowtie:D

Nice start especially when the wife is part of it,

That actually made me laugh out loud. Yeah, I'm one of the fish like you swimming the other way. I love a NABB. With everyone going LS, I feel like I'm building my own counter culture car. This build is based mostly on aesthetics, so an LS was out from the start. Thanks for the compliments again. More to come.

Finally finished the firewall yesterday. This is the one from ABC. Took inventory of all of the things that need to head to paint. I'll be loading it this week to head to paint jail. Woo hoo!

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...427/fwall2.jpg

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...427/fwall1.jpg

Looks awesome so far and what ever color you go with those 67s look so nice. Nice to see a family project instead of all of the big money shop builds(I like those too).

BPD

I have also seen Dave's work in person and it is awesome! I'm sure this car will be too!! Bill, I'd go with "NovaS-Bill" :thumbsup:

wow thanks guys- those are the words that keep me pushing forward. I really appreciate that.

aluminum slots
 

id love to have those for my car they still around

Looking good keep the pics coming.

......and she's in paint jail. Time to focus on nailing down a color and detailing the engine and trans. The car definately has some nice company!

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So walking through SEMA I found myself in the House of Kolors booth. One of the samples they had reached out and bit me. After spending some with the HOK boys, it was determined that the code on the back wasn't written right so they could only guess it was one of three colors. I bought some 3 ounce samples from the guys at TCP Global and sprayed them on a crashed hood we had in our trash bin. If anyone's looking at reds- here you go. These are sprayed over light gray sealer and concentrated towards the upper end of the hood. I only had so much material, so it kept me from covering the tape all the way.

From left to right: Euro Red, Kosmos Red, Blue Blood Red

The car will be Kosmos red. In the sun, it's hands down the deepest and richest red of all three. We spray color in 3 weeks!

http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...redsamples.jpg

yeah chevelles look kick ass in red. love the project. can't wait to see it with color on it.

Loving the build! That's way cool that you're wife is into also.

I see you have some sweet wheels on there...Are those NewGen Lites???

And you should be happy to know that I'm running a naturally aspirated big block also. T-56 six speed transmission behind it.

Here's some pictures of my car from SEMA this year:

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...lle454/145.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...lle454/141.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...lle454/142.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...lle454/144.jpg

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t...lle454/143.jpg

Those were shot from Sportruck.com, I haven't had a chance to shoot the car since SEMA with the upgrades.

Looks like you have it under control but if you have any questions feel free to ask!

That Kosmos red looks great! I love HOK colors. They have some fantastic shades that really pop.

Tim, I think I spent an entire day walking back and forth from your car to Chris's red '66 back there in the Magnaflow booth. Both cars are stunning. Your car makes a shocking statement that I love. The colors are really dramatic and crisp. I am running NewGen lites in gray powdercoat with chromed lips and hardware. I think it'll work with the red and I'm planning on doing the interior in dark gray leather to pull it all together. My fingers are crossed. Not many cars left running N/A big blocks, but I still think they're cool.

Well dang! That's pretty cool. I wish you would of grabbed me and said hey. That's actually me in the brown TMI shirt in those pictures. And Chris's car is no comparison to mine...his is on a much much higher level! He's a professional and I'm a 27 year old kid that built my car in my garage. :)

Thanks for the compliments about my car! I was trying to do something different than the norm with the white and gray interior. Had a lot of people that said "Im not sure...." then once it was in the car they loved it. I love it too! :thumbsup:

You're car is going to be hot! That bright red with the wheels and everything will be just right. Can't wait to see the progress as you move along. Again, if you need to bounce any ideas off me or ask how things fit on my car, feel free to bug me.

When I bought my car 12 years ago when I was 15 it had this NA BBC in it. It was tired and worn out but ran good. About 3-4 years ago it burnt some valves and crapped out on me. Being on a budget I went ahead and rebuilt it. Its very hard not to go to the LS side. I installed a 2007 Corvette engine in my buddies 65 Chevelle a few years back and I was taken back. But I do love the big BBC. My plan is to add some aluminum heads at some point. Maybe even a serpentine drive. To be honest I wouldn't mind a fuel injection system on it too, squeeze a few more ponies and maybe one more MPG out of it.

Nice, It's going to be a lot of fun when you are done, I will keep checkin for more pics

As you know SEMA is such an overwhelming experience, it was hard to find anyone there. No excuse though- I should have tracked you down. Next year!

That's cool that you have some history with your car. I've only had this car a couple years, but it was bought off Lateral G and is a husband/wife build which has made it really fun. I let her make most of the calls ( I do have veto power) and she's done well so far. Hot rods for me are about the journey so it's been fun to catalog all the changes, repairs, and even mistakes.

With all due respect to the LS guys (and I have had a couple in muscle cars) I just don't think they look "right" in a Chevelle. The engine bay is so broad that a big block just completes the look. After owning both big block and LS powered cars, I've come to love torque. Regardless of weight, 550 ft lbs coming on at 2000 rpm with a stick is just stupid fun. This on'es getting a warmed up 502 (509 now) 10:1, built rect ports, hyd roller setup, Vintage Air front runner, and the MSD Atomic EFI. It's got a Richmond 5 speed behind it, a 12 bolt and 3.31 cogs. Can't wait to drive it. I'll keep adding the updates.

Thanks to everyone for the motivation.

Love the '67s...Great car...Great Project...Keep the pics coming, please...

It looks more like Paint-Club-Fed in there with some real nice company your '67 has...

My '67 2 Door Chevelle Wagon is also in paint jail, more like Mexican third world jail compared to your lockup...Best of luck to both of us...

Rick